Foodists is a collective of like-minded food worshippers. We breathe and sleep in order to eat and drink. Have something to share with us? We'd love to hear from you. If it's something to eat or drink, even better.

For most of us, the closest we get to a whole octopus is through the glass at the aquarium.

The Butchers of Gastown (BOG) is all about sharing in the sourcing of a whole beast (or beasts), learning how to take them apart and then making a feast fit for kings with little to no waste. Sharing being the operative word here, though limited to only maybe a handful of Foodists at each event, video has become the window we can let everyone partake (not as tasty we realize).

Our first BOG was ambitious, a whole hog. I’m not kidding when I say we were at it well over 15 hours after all was said and done. Number two was a more modest eight or so hours as our lamb was much smaller than the pig. Our most recent, seafood edition, clocked in at something like 14 hours if you include the early morning beach and supermarket foraging. That’s a lot of footage to shoot and then edit down into a neat ten or less minutes. In limited space, with a crowd of eager, knife-wielding Foodists, the action unfolds quickly and is often not repeatable (once you’ve cut the head off certain beasts, that’s it, there’s no staging a second shot).

Our go-to guys for this are Nathan and Ryan. Talented and so dedicated to their craft they barely get to sample the melée they are recording. And that’s not even counting the editing. Creating a cohesive and engaging story out of the chaos is a massive load of work indeed. Work that does not go unappreciated by any means.

So, our hats off and knives out to them as we celebrate and share the latest in our ongoing series, Butchers of Gastown…